Think, plan, write a story about a disastrous holiday
This lesson introduced some important features of narrative writing. A story describes a series of real or imaginary events and can be written in the first or third person. It should entertain the reader in some way, for example by being funny or sad or strange.
The purpose of the first paragraph is to set the scene and introduce the characters. The purpose of the last paragraph is to bring the story to an end. Main events are told in past simple in the order in which the events occurred. The past perfect tense indicates the action happened some time before the action related to the past simple. Sequence words also help establish the order of events, for example by the time, while, after, as soon as, as, just before.
It was the worst holiday Monika had ever had. She had never been to a holiday camp before, but thought that it would be a good place to meet lots of people of her own age.
The holiday was a disaster from the start. The first thing that went wrong was that she had to share a room with a 75-year-old woman who went to bed at 8 p.m., snored all night, and complained that Monika woke her up when she came back from the disco at 3 a.m. The next problem was that Monika was woken up four hours later by a cheerful voice over an intercom saying, 'Good morning holidaymakers! Time to get up and start the day!' It was impossible to turn over and go back to sleep as the announcement was followed by loud music and repeated every five minutes.
At the end of the fortnight Monika was exhausted and had not had much fun either. That was the last time she would go to a holiday camp on holiday.
posted by Colin at 6:30 pm
1 Comments:
Here's a successful narrative about a disasterous holiday.
This story has a clear and logical structure: Paragraphs 1-3 set the scene; paragraphs 4-5 describe two unfortunate events, and paragraphs 6-7 bring the story to an entertaining close with a clever twist. Well done Zein!
It was the worst holiday Monika had ever had. She had never been through such embarrassment.
It had been her wish to visit the seaside, and it was time for her to go on holiday since she was so dedicated to her work as a lawyer.
So, last summer, she set off to California by car. She arrived there horribly tired and almost sick, but she was determined to visit the sea first. It was awful to see her dreams shattered when she found the sea too dirty and crowded to bare.
To make matters worse, by the time she arrived at the hotel, it was midnight and there were no rooms available, so she decided to sleep in her car, which she had found by recognising its shape in the dark. She noticed it was open but this didn't bother her since she was extremely sleepy.
The next morning, she woke up to the sound of shouting, it was a man telling her 'she was the best!'
Surprised and feeling stupid she found out she had slept in the wrong car and that the man, who was a policeman, was telling her 'she was under arrest!' (Not 'she was the best.')
Totally embarrassed, she ended her holiday immediately.
Written by Zein Najada
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